Measuring equipment with electrically small antennas

BLUETEST of Gothenburg in Sweden produces reverberation chambers and software for the fast and precise test of equipment with electrically small
antennas like RF transceiver modules, mobile phones and tablet PCs using wireless standards such as Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee, GSM, UMTS and LTE.
The chambers measure:

For WiFi and LTE terminals with MIMO
antennas the reverberation chamber is the only possibility to directly measure:

Diversity gain

MIMO capacity

Measurements can be made 10 times faster than with usual methods in anechoic chambers:

Measurement

Typ. Test Time

Passive Antenna Measurements

1 min

Passive Diversity Gain

1 min

Passive MIMO Capacity

1 min

TRP (Total Radiated Power)

1 min/channel

TIS (Total Isotropic Sensitivity)

10 min/channel

FastTIS Measurement (GSM and WCDMA)

3 min/channel

TPUT (Throughput) Measurement

1-2 min

Over-The-Air-Test (OTA) according to CTIA and 3GPP

The reverberation chamber is the only measurement methodology for wireless large form factor devices in CTIA’s test plan for over-the-air (OTA) performance.
All devices larger than notebook-size (one dimension larger than 42 cm) are defined as a large form factor device. The test plan covers the following cellular protocols: CDMA,
CDMA 1xRTT DATA, CDMA 1xEV-DO, GSM, GPRS, EGPRS, UMTS und LTE.

The Bluetest reverberation chamber is a candidate for the Over-The-Air-Test (OTA) of MIMO-terminals according to 3GPP and CTIA.

Bluetest announces the 5th Generation of Reverberation Chambers

New features of Bluetest's reverberation chambers

The new measurement chamber of Bluetest simplifies and accelerates OTA measurements with:

Bluetest reverberation chamber versions

Currently three chambers with different size and therefore different lower cutoff frequency are available:New: RTS25 for the ISM-bands 2.5GHz and 5-6GHz, optimized
for Bluetooth, WLAN, ZigBee, WirelessHart. Data sheet RTS25RTS65 is optimized for the frequency range 650MHz to 6GHz. Data sheet RTS65RTS95 is optimized for the frequency range 400MHz to 6GHz and for larger DUTs. Data sheet RTS95

Within the sixth frame program of the EU a comparison was made by the Antenna Centre of Excellence. The test results show that BLUETEST chambers perform similar or even better than anechoic
chambers, with a standard deviation of only 0.5dB.
www.antennasvce.org

Bluetest ISS11 Attenuator-Matrix

For throughput measurements of MIMO-access points and MIMO-terminals operating in the ISM-bands at 2.4GHz and 5GHz or with LTE, Bluetest has developped the ISS11 attenuator system.
Presentation Bluetest ISS11

ISS11 is ideal for measuring IP-throughput over power level of LTE or WLAN IEEE 802.11ac. It supports MIMO up to 4x4.

ISS11 can be used with Bluetest's echo chambers for OTA (Over-the-Air) tests. It is fully integrated into Bluetest's FLOW software.
ISS11 can be used also for conducted measurements or with other OTA chambers.